Turkish PEN Centre

Dear Members of Czech PEN, Austrian PEN and German PEN,

This letter is addressed especially to you because at various times of Jiří Gruša's life you were his immediate PEN family.

The first shock of his death has now passed. Today I began to think about just how young Jiří was, and therefore how many words will not be written. All of us, I know, are also thinking of Jiří and Sabine; how close they were; how sad we must all be for Sabine.

When I heard the awful news my first thought was of how, as President, he was the perfect evocation of PEN. Here was the quintessential man of the word. And because of those words he was pursued, persecuted, arrested, jailed. His citizenship was stripped from him. He was driven into exile.

And yet, when it was over and the political persecution had ended, he came home and simply set to work with his words – writing and serving the public good.


When we elected him as president, one of his first statements was that “freedom of expression is actually freedom from hatred”. He continually rose above that level at which bitterness for wrongs done may function; the sort of bitterness which clouds principles. And as International President, he immediately spoke up on behalf of “small literatures”, by which he meant “all indigenous literatures”.

There was, as we all experienced, a wonderful irony to Jiří’s view of the world. A constant humour. But it was a complex, literary humour in which irony could play a central role. That irony was part of the nobility with which he rose above short-term

Dear PEN Members all over the world,

Thank you so much for the messages regarding the tragic losses due to the earthquake in Van. Our International President John Ralston Saul, the International Treasurer Eric Lax, Ekbal Baraka the President of Egypt PEN and other colleagues have sent messages -which we have mentioned to the press in Turkey.

As PEN Turkey, we have criticised the government for certain shortcomings. A lot needs to be done.

Best wishes,

Tarik Günersel
Int'l Board Member & President of PEN Turkey

The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet (Republic), a leading newspaper in favour of secularism and democratization, has recently held a full page interview with Ms Marian Botsford Fraser, PEN Int'l Chair of Writers in Prison Committee. The interviewer was Meltem Yilmaz, a young woman journalist. For the published interview in Turkish, you can visit http://www.abhaber.com/haber.php?id=34229

And here is the English original:

Q: I’d like to initiate this interview with your observations of the WiPC Conference in Brussels. Could you tell us your observations of the conference in Brussels on 24th- 27th March. Which subjects were emphasized, what kind of decisions were made?

As the PEN Centre of Turkey, we strongly condemn the Israeli government's illegal and inhuman attack on the humanitarian-aid ships that were sailing in international waters on their way to Gaza, and we invite Israeli writers to condemn this attack. It is a duty of each human being to respect and remember the murdered volunteers.
 
PEN Centre of Turkey

Since the early paleolithic ages, since the period when pictures were drawn on the walls of the Altemira caves in Spain, human beings have always conveyed their stories to the next generations. The way the enchanting discourses were derived from nature and the way they were used during the shamanistic rituals, long before the monotheistic religions, the narratives of Homeros of Smyrna, the epic of Gilgamesh, the itineraries of the famous Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi and all the other tales, legends and myths have joined hands and have travelled together throughout the centuries.

Man is telling his own stories since the time when he first started to convert his voice into statement. Since then, all the sounds have found their appropriate places on the tablets, on the papyri and finally on the papers and pages. All these efforts have constituted a whole: the totality of all the ways how man has come face to face with his own self. Man’s questioning his own existance in naïveté has always been found throughout history, even long before writing has been invented.

Human beings try to reach their own utopias persistently. When we study the losses of mankind in its ancient history, we clearly see that this persistency has roots in the distant past of humanity. We have put an end to the twentieth century which was full of injustice and bloodbath. We have welcomed the twenty first century with the hope that it would heal the destructive effects of the twentieth century. There were feasts and cheer in honour of this new century…Our efforts to amuse ourselves were full of hope but ad interim at the same time. Even if this seemed to be a situation that should be tolerated, our hopeful expectations backfired within a short time. This new century bears all the negativity of the previous century.

At this stage short stories were written. They are still being written. The short story draws strength from its own utopia, not from belief. This is because, utopia is by no means an abstract concept. If societies themselves try to attain other ways of living in which they will be able to battle for the values of the mankind and if they are capable of criticising the control of power, then they will never lose their own energy to renew the order in a society.

Utopia enlightens our minds as a phenomenon that is open to debate and criticism. The short story genre, which extends from an ancient tradition to our modern age, will strengthen and increase the rapidity of the throbbing of its heart. To repeat once again, utopia, in my opinion, is not only an abstract concept.

We take great pleasure in celebrating the 14 February-World Short Story Day.

FURUZAN 2010

(Translated into English by Aysu Erden)

The Irish are a strange race. We are an amalgam of Celts, in a sense like people standing on the edge of a cliff but holding tight nevertheless. There is a general conclusion that all Celts are the same - i.e. have something in common, but in fact that is wrong. Actually we're very proud of our individuality; we don't want to be "of the one tribe."

We are much less reserved than the Scots, the Welsh or the French. But we seem to have all ended up living on the edge of society as though we have invited the stronger, more practical and therefore more powerful races to brush us away. I think possibly that all these circumstances have made us - through necessity - quick thinkers. And perhaps this is re-produced in our various art forms. In other words, we are always in a hurry, which of course brings me to the gist of my summing up, our need to express ourselves - an omnipresent human need - through the quicker kind of art form, in this case "the short story".

We must encapsulate our feelings which we want to communicate as quickly as possible. We are a bit like children at a circus, we are always pushing our way to the front; we are always in a crowd who - by and large - wants to get rid of us.

And we Irish, who are basically islanders, are probably the most determined to get "our message over" as quickly as possible. And what better way than through the medium of the short story. Consequently we have produced some of the most phenomenal short-story writers over the last two hundred years. Writers who tell it well and tell it fast.

So many names spring to mind: George Moore, James Joyce, Kate O Brien, Mary Lavin, Frank O Connor, Sean O Faolain, William Trevor, John McGahern. And too many more to mention. And I am very honoured to be given a ringside seat at the circus amongst this company.

Leland BARDWELL

February 2010.

Iran; the ancient land of poetry, is now in blood. There is blood on its avenues and streets. In hopes of seeing peace taking the place of foul play,  we invite all the people in the world and in our country  to try their best, as soon as possible, to support the efforts of  bringing
violence to a close. We hope that all kinds of artifices used by the authorities who prefer provoking authoritative oppression, in stead of
supporting democracy, will come to an end.

İnci Aral
President
Turkish PEN Center

Esteemed Presidents and Members of the Centers of International P.E.N.

I have taken over the presidency of the Turkish PEN Center. I feel excited and, I am honoured to be in this big family in which diverse, genuine and wonderful voices and personalities reside side by side.

Writing is the hope of being able to change the world, and a promise made for the whole mankind to be able to achieve eternity. However, today, at the beginning of the 21st Century, our civilization is still not rid of racial and linguistic discrimination, the violation of human rights and freedom of expression, and not rid of the barriers set before the word. What is more important is that, we are under threat of great disasters that are caused by the destruction of nature in a hazardous way, more than ever.

Like all the laborers who have undertaken the task of writing in the world, like all the translators, editors, and the authors who use their pens on behalf of promoting the freedom and happiness of mankind, and like all those who continue to believe in the unifying and constructive power of literature, which also has the capability of dividing and distributing shares among people, we, the writers and PEN members who live in Turkey, cherish the idea of establishing strong connections with PEN and its principles in order to bring our voices together, and express our anxiety about the future loudly. Thus, our voices will turn into a big chorus that will be heard from all the corners of the World, and thus we will remain, no matter what the conditions are. We will never give up defending the universal human values, nor cease writing. We write with the aspiration and hope of creating a world that will befit the self-respect of the human being, a world in which there will be more justice, more freedom and peace.

I and my colleagues who work for the Turkish PEN Center would like to convey our most sincere feelings of respect and affection from Turkey to all the esteemed writers and presidents of the Centers of the member countries of International P.E.N.

With my best regards

June 8, 2009  Istanbul

İNCİ ARAL

PRESIDENT TURKISH PEN CENTER

“Almost all of us are mortal,” said a French scholar in the presence of Louis XIV. He was afraid to say “We are all mortal.” 
      There has always been a tension between political power and freedom of expression. And at present, there is a serious tension in Turkey. To name just a few examples:
     *Article 301 of the Penal Code is still used and more than 700 citizens have been taken to court in relation to it.
     *PEN member Nedim Gürsel is on trial because of his novel “The Daughters of Allah” (or “God’s Daughters”) –upon the accusation that some sentences in the novel may hurt the feelings of some believers, though some sentences are misquoted.
     *The former PEN President Üstün Akmen, who is the president of the Association of Theater Critics,  is on trial due to the accusation that he has insulted the authorities who had banned a theatrical performance.
     *PEN member Pınar Selek, the leading feminist sociologist who had to spend 2.5 years in prison although she was found innocent of an explosion (which was claimed to be the result of a bomb but which turned out to be an accident related to a gas pipe), is taken to court again.

Naci el Ali: Hanzala



Terror? How about STATE TERROR?
Israel is bombing Anne Franks in Gazza.


Tarık Günersel
President
tarik.gunersel@pen.org.tr